Barry Banks

In a prestigious career built on impeccable technique and innate musicality, Barry Banks’ performances of the leading bel canto roles by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti have taken him to the world’s leading opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Salzburg Festival and the Wiener Staatsoper. 

Notable operatic roles have included Banks’ debut as Arnold (Guillaume Tell) at Welsh National Opera, the title role in Mitridate, re di Ponto and Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia) at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Count Almaviva at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Idreno (Semiramide) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Metropolitan Opera and he appeared as Iago in Rossini’s Otello the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The role of Don Ramiro (La cenerentola) saw his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Oreste (Ermione) marked his debut at the Santa Fe Festival. He made his debuts in Vienna as Norfolk (Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra) at Theater an der Wien, at the Teatro Real as the Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel and at Opernhaus Zürich as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd. In 2021 he made his debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra.

During a long association with English National Opera he has appeared in a string of new productions and roles include Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. In the USA he has made recent house debuts at Opera Philadelphia (The Love for Three Oranges) and at Dallas Opera (The Golden Cockerel). In 2019/20 he gave a critically acclaimed performance in the world premiere of Matt Aucoin’s Eurydice at Los Angeles Opera; a role he reprised at the Metropolitan Opera in 2021/22 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

In concert Barry Banks has performed Berlioz’ Grand Messe des Morts under Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra which was released to considerable acclaim on LSO Live. He sang in Britten’s War Requiem at the Teatro alla Scala under Xian Zhang, The Dream of Gerontius with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Sir Andrew Davis, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Gurrelieder with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de Espana under the baton of David Afkham. 

In the 2022/23 Season Barry Banks makes his role debut as Mime (Das Rheingold) at Dallas Opera conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and he returns to Los Angeles Opera in the West Coast premiere of Michael Abel’s Omar. On the concert platform he returns to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for performances of Beethoven Symphony no. 9 under the baton of Jaap van Zweden and there will be a performance of Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Thierry Fischer in the Nova Chamber Music Series.